Renters Rights - Basic Legal Rights (Introduction)

If you are renting a home from someone else, it's important to be aware of your rights in order to make sure that your landlord does not take advantage. It's equally important to also know your responsibilities as a tenant, to avoid any potential problems that can arise and subsequently affect your tenancy agreement.

All private tenants in England and Wales, whether renting out a room in a shared house or renting a whole property, have basic legal rights.

Some of these rights include the right to:

Live in a property that is safe and in good condition.
Know who your landlord is.
Quiet enjoyment of the property without the landlord invading your privacy and turning up whenever they feel like.
Challenge excessively high charges.
Get your rent deposit back after the end of the tenancy and in most cases, having your rent deposit protected in a tenancy deposit protection scheme.
Protection against unfair eviction and unreasonable rent increases and
Have a written agreement if you have a fixed-term tenancy of more than 3 years.

There are a lot more rights that private tenants have and these, along with the rights mentioned above, will be discussed individually and in further detail in later posts.

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